


Dibs

by tfloosh



Series: Tales from the Castletown Apartments [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, groose and his bro code
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 09:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9997067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tfloosh/pseuds/tfloosh
Summary: There's a new girl moving in next to Link and Groose, and Link is about 90% sure she's his soulmate, but Groose has already called dibs!





	

**Author's Note:**

> The ‘My roommate called dibs on you when you were moving in and I’m devastated because I’m pretty sure you’re my soulmate’ AU

Link was so glad their annoying neighbors were finally moving. The loud music at odd hours of the night, the yelling early in the morning, and the strange, often toxic, smelling fumes that they claimed was food, all of it was gone. Groose was very serious about throwing a party once the tenants finally left, and much to Link’s shock, the neighbors on the other side of apartment 2D, Pipit and Karane, wholeheartedly agreed and even offered to supply the drinks.

“You know Owlan said he’s already found someone to rent the place,” Karane said as they all watched the horrid soon to be former tenants of 2D take box after box out of their apartment.

“They’re going to have to wash that whole apartment in bleach or something,” Link said from the tiny kitchen. “And stop looking out the curtains. You look like a creeper.”

“At least they’re finally leaving,” Pipit said matter-of-factly. “I tried for six months to get Owlan to evict them, but he kept saying something about how what they do in their apartment being their business, and he can’t stop them from doing what they want if it’s in their apartment.”

“They should actually do a whole detox before the bleach,” Karane laughed, completely ignoring her boyfriend’s comment.

“Scrub the floors with acid,” Groose chimed in.

“Burn the walls just to get rid of that horrible smell that so was not food,” Link chuckled.

“But really,” Karane interrupted. “I wonder who the new tenant will be.”

“Whoever they are,” Link glanced out the window at the retreating backs of the old tenants. “I hope they’re nice.”

* * *

 

It was five days after the celebratory party that moving boxes returned to apartment 2D. Karane excitedly ran over with Pipit in tow to Link and Groose’s apartment at seven in the morning to inform them of this fact.

“Owlan says it’s a girl,” Karane stared pointedly at both of the boys. “A pretty girl.”

“I call dibs then,” Groose smirked at Link.

“You can’t call dibs without seeing her first,” Link said, only pretending to be slightly offended and outraged.

“Why not?”

“I think the proper answer is because it’s against the Bro Code,” Pipit supplied.

“Yeah,” Karane agreed. “You should at least wait to see her, Groose. What if she’s not your type?”

“Any girl is Groose’s type,” Link snorted into his coffee. This set Groose off on a rant about how he did indeed have a certain type of girl, and no, not just anyone would do.

As much as Groose annoyed him every now and then, his antics made life more entertaining. Link didn’t really care about finding a girlfriend for himself as much as Karane did, so he simply took this as an opportunity to mess with his roommate.

“You know Kina doesn’t fit any of the descriptions you just gave, and you dated her for three months,” Link pointed out.

Steam seemed to blow out of Groose’s ears. As he began another rant about how Kina was different, and therefore these rules did not apply to her, Link finished his breakfast and left for class.

As a sophomore at Castletown Tech, Link was a History major, something his parents thought was a waste of time. But history always fascinated Link, and it was always his best subject. He had thought it would be a stepping stone to adventure and traveling around the world, but so far all History had given him was a solid 3.8 GPA and little to no social life. He begrudgingly went to two classes with three cups of coffee before meeting up with Groose for lunch as usual.

“So I’ve seen her,” Groose said proudly as he started in on his pizza.

“Who?” Link’s eyes narrow suspiciously, lowing the drink that was halfway to his mouth.

“The new girl in 2D,” he explained. “I saw her, and I officially call dibs.”

“Well, congratulation,” Link raised his glass sarcastically. “I hope you are happy placing your dibs.”

“I am,” Groose smirked haughtily. “Thank you.”

Link went to his last class of the day, nearly fell asleep during the lecture since he forgot his back-up caffeine supply, and headed back to his apartment, where he ran into what appeared to be a stack of floating boxes.

“I am so sorry,” Link instantly set down his book bag to help pick up the fallen boxes.

“Oh no,” a sweet, feminine voice said. “It’s all my fault. I didn’t see where I was going.”

“No, I should have been paying attention,” Link said as he picked up the books that had fallen out of one of the boxes.

“How about we just agree that it was both our faults?” the girl laughed.

Link laughed with the girl as he lifted the box of books. Then he finally looked into her eyes. Now truth be told, Link was not the kind of guy to take stock in Karane’s rants about ‘love at first sight’ or even ‘true love’ in general, but when he saw this girl, as cheesy as it sounds, Link started to believe all that sappy romance stuff Karane had spouted over the years. The girl was stunning with waist length, golden blonde hair and amazing, clear blue eyes. Her smile lit up her whole face, giving her an undeniable glow of happiness that for some reason took Link’s breath away.

“Hi,” Link said, feeling somewhat brain-dead not knowing what to say in the girl’s presence.

“Hi,” the girl’s smile grew wider. “I’m Zelda. I’m moving into 2D.”

“Ah,” Link nodded hoping it would somehow shake off that brain-dead feeling. “So that makes you my new neighbor. I’m Link by the way.” He awkwardly shifted the box of books so that it rested in his left hand before extending his right.

“Nice to meet you, Link,” Zelda laughed as she shook his hand. “So you can help me with these boxes, right?”

Link almost rolled his eyes, “Sure, why not?”

He spent the next two hours helping Zelda move the last of her boxes from her car to her new place. They spent the time talking about the books Zelda liked to read, and Link’s hobby of woodcarving, and the other neighbors in the apartment building. Link kept getting lost in Zelda’s beautiful eyes and entranced in the way she spoke. It was adorable to watch, and Link couldn’t help but smile as he watched her flit about her apartment unpacking her boxes.

“Whew,” Zelda playfully wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “I’ve been moving boxes all day.”

“No one to help you?” Link asked, trying to nonchalantly see if she had any roommates or friends.

“Well, there was this one guy with red hair in a horrible pompadour,” Zelda mused. “But when he said something about missing classes, I insisted he get to school. Other than that, no, I’ve had no help.”

“That would have been my roommate, Groose,” Link explained. “He’s almost as pompous as his pompadour, but he’s still not as bad as Pipit.”

“I can’t wait to meet all your friends,” Zelda laughed. It sounded all musical-like with birds chirping happily in the distance and wind chimes ringing on porch decks. “Do you want to stay for a drink? It’s the least I can do since you helped me and all.”

“Nah, I have homework to get to, but maybe you can come over sometime,” Link suggested, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Have dinner with all of us or something.”

“I would like that,” she smiled, her eyes twinkling with merriment. Link could have sworn they sparkled like stars.

“Well, I think stuffed crust pizza is on the menu tonight,” he said as he started heading toward the door. “If you wanna come over or something.”

“What time?” Zelda asked as she opened the door for him.

“Any time after six should be good,” Link smiled.

“I’ll be there then,” she winked at him. Link thought his heart was going to stop beating. “Goodbye, Link.”

“See you later, Zelda,” he waved as she closed the door behind him.

Link sighed, gazing longingly at the door to 2D for a minute before shaking his head. He had spent all of two and a half hours with this girl and he was already, undeniably head over heels for her. Irrevocably wrapped around her finger. Completely and utterly love sick like some sappy Romeo in a Hallmark movie.

He started his two second journey back to his place thinking about how he could ask Zelda out on a real date when she came to dinner that night when he remembered. Groose had dibs. While Link never really cared about Groose’s sacred Bro Code or any of its by-laws, including the operation and application of dibs, for some insane reason Groose did. What had started as a hilarious compilation of rules on how they would act as roommates they wrote on napkins while drunk almost two years ago had transformed into a legitimate printed and bound copy of clauses, sub-clauses, and overall ridiculous set of rules on how ‘bros’ should conduct themselves around other ‘bros.’

Link had put up with the insanity since it never really concerned him and he never really had an interest in dating, but he had always been there for Groose in a position that has since been dubbed ‘the wingman,’ and Link actually felt bad about going behind his roommate’s back like this even though he was pretty sure Zelda was his soulmate. And that had to mean something since three scant hours ago, Link did not even believe in the concept of soulmates.

So Link did the only thing he could think of. He barged into his apartment and went straight up to Groose who was eating Hot Pockets at the tiny bar in the kitchen and demanded, “How much do you want?”

“Wait, what?” Groose said confused.

“For your dibs on Zelda,” Link pulled out his wallet. “How much do you want for them? I got like forty bucks here.”

“I’m not selling my dibs,” Groose said with a cocky smirk.

“I talked with her. She thinks your hair is ridiculous.” Groose gasped at this comment.

“So what do you want?” Link said calmly. “I’ll pay for all our meals for a month.”

“No.”

“I’ll do all the chores around the apartment for six months.”

“Still no.”

“This is adding onto the forty bucks and the meals for a month.”

Groose seemed to contemplate this, stroking his beloved pompadour before conceding, “Fine, if you care that much, you can have my dibs.”

Link hurriedly handed the money over to Groose.

“But you know I’m going to tell Karane about this, and she is going to have a cow when she finds out how much you wanted to actually be with a girl.”

“Shut up, Groose.”

Link set about ordering the promised stuffed crust pizza, texted Pipit and Karane that he had invited Zelda over to dinner and that they were welcome as long as they brought chips, and started on his World Civilizations homework.

At half past five, Karane barreled into their apartment practically singing about how sweet, quiet, and nontoxic food creating Zelda was. Pipit set down the four bags of Lays on the table, complementing their new neighbor on her seemingly natural ability to hold a decent intelligent conversation, an ability that was sorely lacking in their present circle of friends, they were all assured.

Zelda showed up at six on the dot with some soda and was immediately roped into girl talk with Karane. They appeared to be growing into fast friends. Much like earlier in the day, Link couldn’t take his eyes off her, and unfortunately Pipit took notice.

“Why, Link,” he started with the air of making some huge speech or lecture. “I have never seen you so interested in a girl before. Could it be that you have finally found someone that caught your eye?”

“Shove off, Pipit,” Link stuck his tongue out childishly. “I just happened to notice that Zelda is beautiful, and her eyes are prettier than a cloudless sky, and she just glows with happiness like there’s a halo around her, and oh my Goddess, I’m rambling.”

Pipit laughed, “It seems like someone has finally been bitten by the love bug.” He clapped an arm around Link’s shoulder. “I knew it would get you eventually. Why you were just like me when I was younger. Not glancing at any girls, focusing on your studies, until _wham!_ There she is standing before you in all her beauty.”

“Are you drunk, Pipit?” Link unsuccessfully tried to get out from under his friend’s arm.

“All of a sudden, it seems as if the sun and stars have been overshadowed. This girl in front of you is the brightest thing on the planet. But what really sucks for you,” Pipit paused for dramatic effect. “Is that Groose has dibs.”

“He doesn’t have dibs anymore,” Link chuckled with a slight smirk.

“Oh ho,” Pipit’s eyes grew wide. “And how did you manage to make him rescind his dibs?”

“I, uh, kinda bought them,” Link rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“You bought what?” a new voice asked behind them.

Link turned around to see Zelda standing there with a confused smile on her face and a couple of pizza boxed in her hands.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story,” Link could feel his face growing red.

Pipit skillfully took the pizza boxes from Zelda and left the kitchen.

“I’m sure it’s not that long,” Zelda’s smiled widened and her eyes twinkled mischievously.

“So you see, when Groose heard that a girl was moving into the apartment next door he called dibs on her, I mean, you,” Link started. “But then we argued that you can’t call dibs on a girl without seeing her, but today he met you and officially called dibs at lunch. But then I met you after school, and you laugh at my cheesy jokes, and we love all the same books, and I’m pretty sure I have a major crush on you. But that was a problem ‘cause Groose had called dibs, and it’s a serious thing with Groose. We have this whole Bro Code and everything, but I knew you wouldn’t like him, and he wouldn’t like you after you said his hair looked ridiculous, so I had to buy Groose’s dibs if I wanted to ask you out.”

Zelda nodded along with Link’s story and paused when he had finished before asking, “So are you going to?”

“Going to what?” Link answered in confusion.

“Going to ask me out?” Zelda laughed. “You went to all this trouble, so it would be a shame if you didn’t.”

Link was pretty sure he resembled a fish with the way his mouth gaped open, but once he wrapped his head around what Zelda actually said, he smiled.

“Would you like to go out sometime, Zelda?”

“I would love to, Link,” Zelda smiled back.


End file.
